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Northampton 24 Bath 21: Early Easter gift for Saints

NORTHAMPTON, sparked by the mercurial Carlos Spencer, continued their late run for a Heineken Cup place by squeezing out Bath in this nip-and-tuck affair thanks to a try five minutes from time by back-row replacement Mark Easter. Given a sniff of the line by Spencer, Easter, a student at Nottingham University, burst through Nick Abendanon’s attempted tackle to secure the win.

Northampton, bolstered by half a team of well-rested Kiwis, had just enough gas to overhaul a Bath outfit coming off a heroic but draining stand at Leicester last weekend.

However, Bath did not go quietly, and, with Olly Barkley moving to fly-half after the interval and Samoan international Eliota Fuimaono coming on at inside-centre, they soon made inroads to turn round a 14-5 deficit. Barkley began the fightback with a penalty and, on 46 minutes, a 40m break by Andy Williams saw Alex Crockett and Barkley work Joe Maddock